Review: Alluvial

Alluvial by Katherine Soniat
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has been sitting around my bookshelves for many years. The book is not long, it’s a book of poetry, and honesty do not understand myself and why I waited so long to read it. But I did last week. Perhaps it was better to have waited.

This book is divided into three sections. The first section had a theme that I found easily enough, being about Jamestown, the first colony that remained in the New World with English settlers. The poems were historical, yet lyrical. Some of my reading earlier this year has enabled me to understand this section better than if I had read it before this year, so perhaps the timing was fortuitous.

The other two sections I was not able to discern a theme or any reason why those were organized into one section or the other. The other poems dealt with various subjects that changed poem by poem. Overall, they were written well enough, but some I did struggle with understanding the references that seemed to be there. So, the first section was my favorite in this book.

As typical with most poetry books I find this one hard to rate and landed at 3.75 stars.


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Review: America's First Daughter

America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction book is also a biography of Thomas Jefferson's surviving daughter Martha "Patsy" Jefferson. He did have other children as well, with Sally Hemmings, but they were not the main focus here. Since Martha kept by her father's side since the passing of her mother when she was young, the book is also a biography of Thomas Jefferson. But there is much here that is fiction as well, and a lot about Patsy's relationship with William Short (perhaps invented) and her husband Thomas Randolph. The book highlights letters and how Martha curated those from Jefferson and so shaped what is left of her father's legacy. The book is fairly well done.

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Review: Light from Other Stars

Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This science fiction story is a dual timeline, but most of the exposition lies in 1986 when Nedda Papas is an 11-year-old precious girl. She has two hobbies, one is collecting bad words and the other is NASA, with her dream to be an astronaut. Nedda’s family lives in Easter, Florida, a small town located near the shuttle launches. When the Challenger shuttle explodes it seems to affect everyone.

Nedda is much closer to her dad emotionally, they share science and exploration together, while her mother experiments with baking odd cakes and sweets in the kitchen. They seem prickly to each other, but with this accident and another one that closely follows things change for everyone in Easter.

The other timeline takes place in the future with Nedda being what she dreamed of; she is an astronaut on her way to colonize a new planet. The crew is small, only four of them, and it’s being powered by a device Nedda’s dad was working on in the 1986 timeline.

The book is not straightforward and took me a while to get into it. Nedda isn’t the only character point of view, but hers does take up most of the book, even the young child’s view. The town in 1986 also seemed almost like 1960s with the traditional roles being showcased. Yet the book felt like it was written by a woman, with a focus on relationships more than the science and action. There is plenty of science in the book, but the people occupying the book and their personality take over. Overall, the book is slightly better than average, but a little overly long as well.

Book rating: 3.75 stars


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Review: Pastoralia

Pastoralia by George Saunders
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a book of short stories, six in all. I don't think there was one that I enjoyed. The topics are odd, the characters are odder and I just didn't like the absurdity. I'm sure some people will find these stories funny, but I didn't like them. The only reason my rating wasn't lower was I appreciated the writing format, the style. It's just the content I could not care less about. This book was on my shelves for a long time, if not doubtful I would have picked it up. I have enjoyed a bit of Saunders works before but increasingly have decided his writing is just not for me, doubtful I will read anymore of his works.

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Review: The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life

The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life by Lea Korsgaard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This narrative non-fiction book is about the author, Lea Korsgaard who undertakes an ambitious project to see all the butterfly species in her country of Denmark in one season. She gets help from scientists and a few others who know where you can find which specific butterfly and when. She maps it all out and goes out and seeks to find them, only counting it done when she can take a photograph. There's a website she uses to confirm her find.

Along the way we get information about her life, her kids, but I wouldn't say that the subtitle accurately describes the book. There is a little philosophizing and meandering, particularly with related butterfly subjects. Quite a bit of lingering with Vladamir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist, or butterfly enthusiast. He even found a couple of new species of butterfly and has one named after himself. But “the meaning of life” and “nature’s great mysteries” is a bit of a stretch.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as interested in the book as I expected, but I did appreciate the line drawings of the butterflies at the end of chapters.


Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I primarily read the book by listening to a published audiobook copy of the book.

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Review: The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life

The Butterfly Season: What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life by Lea Korsgaard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This narrative non-fiction book is about the author, Lea Korsgaard who undertakes an ambitious project to see all the butterfly species in her country of Denmark in one season. She gets help from scientists and a few others who know where you can find which specific butterfly and when. She maps it all out and goes out and seeks to find them, only counting it done when she can take a photograph. There's a website she uses to confirm her find.

Along the way we get information about her life, her kids, but I wouldn't say that the subtitle accurately describes the book. There is a little philosophizing and meandering, particularly with related butterfly subjects. Quite a bit of lingering with Vladamir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist, or butterfly enthusiast. He even found a couple of new species of butterfly and has one named after himself. But “the meaning of life” and “nature’s great mysteries” is a bit of a stretch.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as interested in the book as I expected, but I did appreciate the line drawings of the butterflies at the end of chapters.


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Review: The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World

The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World by Nathaniel Philbrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book explained the history of the gold rush in California and the subsequent aftermath in an understandable way. It stated in Sutter’s Mill located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, finding gold that lead to a vein called the Mother Lode. Later another vein of silver was found in Nevada, the next state over and called the Comstock Lode. These two veins of minerals helped fund the United States, helped with the Civil War and spurred the building of the railroad to the west coast. And much more.

Each chapter introduced a specific part of the history, such as building the railroad, or the Chinese immigrants who came to help build the railroad, or how the native people living in California were decimated by this influx of people. This focus within the chapter helped to ground this history throughout the book without feeling scattered or disorganized.

Among the various facts learned, I did appreciate hearing about the various mining techniques used, especially the massive water cannons used that destroyed the mountains. I first heard about this at a rest stop along Interstate 80 there are information plaques and photos about this. One sign reads “there were 45 separate hydraulic mines operating within just a 1.5-mile radius of where this highway rest stop sits”. This type of mining was so destructive, it is astonishing the lengths they went to get that gold.

I listened to this book which was wonderfully narrated by Scott Brick.

Book rating: 4.5 stars

Thanks to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. Also thanks to Penguin Random House Publishers for an advance audiobook copy of the book.


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Review: Identity

Identity by Milan Kundera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kundera is from the Czech Republic but he wrote this book in French, and I read an English translation. The main character, an aging woman, Chantal is starting menopause, getting hot flashes and realizes that "men don't turn to look at me anymore." Chantal asks herself is she still a sex object to men? She wants to be desired and seems to not be able to accept aging and not being desired by someone she doesn’t know. She likes the “male gaze”.

Jean-Marc wonders, well what about him, he looks at her? But he is someone she knows, they live together. The book is mostly about Jean-Marc trying to get Chantal to notice how he still looks at her, loves her, and doesn't that mean something?

Unsigned letters appear for Chantal that she finds strange, someone says he is watching her. She tries to figure out who. The POV switches between Chantal and Jean-Marc, with a bit of Chantal’s past mentioned, such as her ex-husband and their child who died. But the past is not lingered upon, only mentioned briefly. The book is not very long, and there is a bit of oddness to the book overall, felt a little surreal.

Book rating: 3.25 stars


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Review: Black and Blue

Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been going through my shelves reading some of those sitting there for a long time. This is another one that I got likely shortly after it was released. I loved Quindlen's writing style in this book. I was drawn in despite the topic of domestic violence.

Francine is a nurse married young to an Italian who is a NY cop, a detective. He was sexy and dangerous, and violent to her. Beat her up until one day she finally had enough and left, with the help of a woman who runs an organization for battered women to escape.

Fran takes her beloved boy Robert who is only ten and seemed to have accepted the lies of everything is okay, despite all the injuries to his mother. They are relocated to Florida and start a new life on edge. Fran, now Beth, can’t tell anyone her truth.
I was drawn in by the writing style, mostly conversational. But it’s also one of those books that don’t challenge too much. Despite the topic I’m glad I finally read this one.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


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Review: Red Star Sister : Between Madness and Utopia

Red Star Sister : Between Madness and Utopia by Leslie Brody
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leslie Brody’s book is an autobiography about her life as a hippie teenager in the late sixties-early seventies. In 1965 at the age of 13 her mother died which drastically changed her life. At the time she was very engaged in music, being one of those screaming girls for the Beatles. But as she grew up the Vietnam War and the anti-war protests become her central focus.

During high school Brody joined school newspapers and tried to get her poetry or other feminist articles published in underground papers. She worked as staff at one paper, but was more a secretary and the boys never seemed to want to publish her writings. Also, during her high school years she attended the Woodstock music festival, although her experience was nothing like what I would have expected. She was on the fringes and spent the rainy days inside a car.

After high school she wanted to roam more and be more of a pollical agent and by fluke, picked up while hitch-hiking, joined The White Panthers. This was the first I’ve heard of this group, of course knowing about the Black Panthers. The White Panthers completely supported the Black Panthers while their agendas may have differed slightly as the White Panthers were very involved in trying to end the Vietnam War.

Instead of going to college, essentially phoning home to say Dad I’m not going, Leslie continues to be an activist. Eventually she goes to Europe and becomes a backpacker. She had a plan to go to Paris and talk to the Vietnam delegation about ending the war. However, before going to Paris she spent a lot of time in Amsterdam and very slowly traveled to France.

Eventually she ended up in the hospital with sores all over her body and spent a lot of time recovering. Perhaps her madness was the expectations of what she could accomplish with ending a war, but her efforts seemed haphazard.

The descriptions of her experiences of anti-war efforts and working with underground newspapers were very detailed. Brody had nearly continuously kept journals at the time, which helped serve as her memory along with some other artifacts she kept. A few times she writes about her recollections differing from what she wrote, which she ponders briefly upon. At times she uses unexpected words which made for better reading.


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Review: Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations

Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a great read about how everything is interconnected. The detailed explorations in symbiosis becomes a bit astounding and yet makes perfect sense when you think deeply on the subject.

The author Hooper discusses Darwin and his theories quite a bit with how he got some of it wrong with competition being the driving force, when cooperation in nature is much more prevalent.

Fascinating book really. It was a bit dense at times but written in a fairly approachable manner overall.



Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.



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Review: O America: Discovery in a New Land

O America: Discovery in a New Land by William Least Heat-Moon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first book by the author although I do have a couple others of his, his non-fiction travel books. This book, of course, is fictional being set during a few months in 1848.

An English doctor, Nathaniel Trennant, travels to America to see this land and get a sense of it. He was granted free travel overseas by the ship captain who believed there were unicorns and wanted the doctor to prove it one way or other. Of course, the "unicorn" horn turns out to be from a narwal. But the doctor earned his keep by treating the immigrant passengers, which gave him a first glance into who populates this new America. This book is essentially his log books of his travels.

Once docked the doctor finds himself in a slave market and is astonished at this business. Soon after he discovers an escaped slave whom he helps as he abhors the slavery business and so he gains a companion, although now they need to run from the slave catchers. They spend a few weeks with a religious community that shelters them, but soon they must leave. They travel on, mostly by waterways on paddleboats and meet various people and assumptions. They are hunted by a slave catcher throughout most of the book.

In the later part of the book, they befriend an Osage elder. He provides even more philosophy about the country, how it was and now has become. They all experience many adventures during the travelog

I listened to the audiobook version, but it was not the best way to read this book. The narrator had a very sing-song type way of speaking that was fairly distracting. I tried several different speeds, but it didn’t help much. After a while I got somewhat used to it but was happy it was finished.


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